Obviously, the White House does this because they're attention-hungry assholes. So simply reporting that they did something for attention is really just doing them a favor. And adding comments from random internet users observing how disgusting it is is a further waste of time.

Since we're on the topic, though, I want to call out an issue in a movie I otherwise liked quite a bit: the film normalizes extralegal AI-boosted total surveillance in a way that I think was thoughtless and extremely hazardous to our culture.

A decade ago, when Edward Snowden leaked evidence that the US was indiscriminately collecting information on the whereabouts and habits of Americans in obvious contradiction with our fifth amendment rights, there was at least some sense on the part of the government that they had to deny their guilt. But now, there is a normalization of the concept of a panopticon: a police state in which we all assume that our words, thoughts, movements, and associations are presumably known or at least knowable to some unaccountable watcher.

This is bad. I liked the movie, but its flippant embrace of the assumption that we are all observed at all times, and that this is the state of affairs we must acclimate ourselves to, undeserving of anger and simply beyond our ability to challenge if we wanted to is a very dangerous idea that we need to recognize and engage with.